


Always there for you

by Songbird13



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Sick Bones, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-10
Updated: 2017-02-14
Packaged: 2018-08-21 18:06:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8255299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Songbird13/pseuds/Songbird13
Summary: When Bones gets sick, Spock, Uhura and Jim all take care of him.





	1. Sickness - Leonard's POV

As his alarm buzzed, Leonard groaned. The sound seemed as if it were splitting his skull in half as it blared through his quarters. ‘It isn’t usually this loud,’ he mused to himself as he sat up and punched the button to silence the rude wake-up call. 

The action of sitting up had caused his head to spin and ache and he began to feel disorientated. 

Quickly, he lay back on his pillows and waited for the dizziness to ease. As it did, he noticed that he was covered in sweat, causing his pajamas to stick to his skin uncomfortably. A chilled feeling came over him as he felt as if an icy finger had been trailed down his spine, causing him to shiver uncontrollably.

He pulled the covers closer to himself as the shiver began to thankfully dissipate; however the deep throbbing in his temples remained ever-present.

It was in this moment that Leonard realized that he was still tired, despite having fallen asleep almost as soon as he had come into his quarters after Gamma shift last night. A yawn escaped his mouth as he sat up slower than he had earlier, being grateful that his head no longer span as badly as it had, however, disconcertingly, there was still a tinge of dizziness.

“Lights, 20%,” he ordered with a sleep thick voice to the empty room. 

The lights immediately responded and filled the room with a dim glow. Worryingly, his eyes seemed to be adverse to the sudden light and responded with a pain at the back of his retina and black and purple spots appeared in his vision. 

Another yawn escaped him as he covered his eyes with his hands. 

Slowly and gradually, he removed his hands and opened his eyes again. This time was better. 

A few breaths later and he threw back the covers and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. As he stood, his head was filled with an almighty pounding that made him imagine that Klingons were battling in his brain. There was also a hint of nausea that he hadn’t noticed before that was beginning to worry him.

He vaguely remembered feeling like this one morning at the Academy, when James T. Kirk had persuaded him to drink a cocktail of Risa wine, Klingon vodka and Romulan ale. He recalled that it had gone down easily enough with a taste similar to strawberries and apples, but in the morning, it had appeared again with a killer hangover that lasted for three days, giving him symptoms of a splitting headache, severe vomiting, stomach cramps, difficulty breathing, nightmares and oddly fluorescent purple pee.

Today felt like he was reliving the hangover as he went to take a step and ended up blindly running for the bathroom when he felt as if he was going to see his dinner again. Thankfully, it didn’t reappear and soon-with a bit of internal persuasion that he needed it to wake up-he was in the sonic shower cubicle. He was correct in thinking that it would wake him up and it wasn’t long before he felt ready to begin the day by getting dressed into his Star Fleet issue black pants and blue medical shirt, despite the symptoms that still lingered.

He ran his fingers through his hair, keeping it out of his face and with a small throb of his headache; he went down to the mess to meet his friends for their daily get-together breakfast.

The trip down in the turbo lift and the walks down the corridor seemed to be lost to Leonard that morning as he appeared at the mess hall with no recollection of the journey. He shook his head slightly to try to remove the cotton feeling that was threatening his mind and entered.

The first thing that hit him was the noise. Everyone was talking, no louder than usual, but it seemed to penetrate his mind like a thousand spikes had been rammed into the sides of his head, causing the headache to flare up with a vengeance. The second thing that he stepped into was the smell-usually a reassuring smell that reminded him of home, when his Momma used to cook a full hot breakfast and the smells would fill the house-now merely turned his stomach into a somersaulting wave of nausea. The final thing was that he had stopped as if he had hit a wall in the middle of the mess hall and was now being scrutinized by what felt like a thousand eyes.

“Leonard, are you okay?” Somehow, when he was preoccupied with staying stood up, Uhura had come over and she was now in front of him, which caused him to be startled and take a sudden step back.

The jolt back to reality made his head swim and his vision tunnel. 

“Dr McCoy, do you need any assistance?” he heard a monotone voice ask, sure that there was a hint of concern in there, as he looked up at the damned Vulcan first officer. Great, just what I need, he thought to himself, as he looked up at two pairs of eyes on him.

“I’m fine,” he mumbled. As he did so, a wave of dizziness hit him hard, the room span to the point that Leonard was having trouble determining which direction was up and which was down.

Without warning, a groan escaped the Doctor’s mouth and the floor was suddenly moving towards him, as his vision faded to black.  
“Leonard!”

“Doctor!” he heard Spock and Uhura call for him and a set of hands caught him before he hit the cold, hard ground, setting him down gently. The hands were too warm and he presumed that they belonged to the hot blooded Vulcan, but had no time to dwell on the fact as he was lifted from the floor and carried from the room. 

The breeze as they walked was cooling him down and he felt suddenly relaxed as unconsciousness pulled him under, blocking out all feeling and sounds, leaving Leonard floating peacefully.


	2. Worry - Nyota's POV

Nyota was stood with Commander Spock conversing about a recent planet that they had visited, in the mess hall in the morning, before their shift. Nyota wasn’t quite sure what caused her to look over, but when she did and saw Leonard stood in the centre of the mess, it caught her attention, apparently Spock’s too as he finished the sentence and didn’t prompt for a continuation of the conversation.

The southern doctor’s natural tan had been replaced with an unnatural sickly pale and his usually bright hazel eyes were now cloudy and dull. He seemed unfocused and Nyota watched as he swayed where he stood. Both Nyota and Spock stepped forward, towards Leonard at the same time. 

“Leonard?” she asked cautiously at the same time as she heard Spock call “Doctor?” She noted that Spock’s voice was quiet, but had a tinge of fear behind it. 

Leonard’s balance seemed to escape him as him as his eyes rolled and he began his descent to the cold, hard floor. Just as she was registering what was happening, she saw Spock move quickly and gracefully out of the corner of her eye. She could do nothing but observe as Spock caught Leonard and lowered him carefully to the ground, ensuring that the doctor wasn’t injured in the process. 

Nyota stepped forward as Spock repositioned himself to Leonard’ side and kneeled down to place his hands under the doctor’s knees and back before lifting him off of the ground, as if he was a child, rather than a fully grown man. Without a second glance to the now silenced mess, Spock strode out of the room and Nyota followed closely on his heels. 

As Spock and Nyota walked through the relatively quiet corridors, Nyota was silently wishing that Leonard didn’t choose to wake up now, as the usually cantankerous doctor was difficult enough to deal with when he was feeling well, let alone if he was feeling sick. Also, she wasn’t sure how he’d react to being carried through the corridors by Spock, but she assumed that he wouldn’t be too pleased about it. The thought of his reaction brought the ghost of a smile to her lips, but it failed to brush away the feeling of dread that was settling in her stomach. Leonard was the Chief Medical Officer, he wasn’t meant to get sick.

The thought continued to play on her nerves and her stomach throughout the journey, but she was able to give a sigh of relief when they finally turned up at the doors of Sickbay. Upon entering, Spock almost collided with the head nurse, Christine Chapel, whose eyes widened upon seeing the first officer cradling the doctor. 

The worry that had filled her blue eyes just for a moment was soon clouded by a veil of professionalism as she led Spock to a bio-bed where he could relieve himself of the doctor. Nurses and medical staff crowded them almost immediately, as the bio-bed’s screen flickered to life, beeping alerts at them that Nyota could hardly make head nor tail of.

She vaguely heard Spock say that he was going to fetch the Captain, but her focus was on her friend. It was so odd to see the usually confident and assertive man look so vulnerable. It caused her to feel an uncertain worry for him.

Her reverie was broken by the sudden sound of boots running along the metal floor. “Bones?” a voice asked, filled with fear.

She turned to see the young captain stood a few feet away from her, his blue eyes filled with worry as he stared at Leonard, looking as if he was trying to hold back tears. It made him look impossibly younger and even more vulnerable than Leonard. 

Jim stepped cautiously towards the bio-bed, as if Leonard was going to disappear if he moved too quickly. It made her heart bleed to watch, but she almost felt as if she couldn’t peel her eyes away from the scene taking place before her. 

A moment later, she saw Spock move into her line of vision. “We should depart in order to begin our shift,” he claimed, his voice low as his eyes flicked uncharacteristically filled with emotion towards the prone doctor and the fearful captain.

Nyota felt herself nod and with one last look at the pair, she walked out of the sickbay, behind Spock in order to fulfil her duty on the Bridge.


	3. Fear - Jim's POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, I'm sorry it's been so long since my last update. Thank you all for the lovely comments, I hope you enjoy :)

When Spock had come to fetch Jim, he had been rather happy about the morning so far. There had been no red alerts, no attacks, no-one running to him crying about a little issue and he was feeling pretty good. He should have known that if something hadn’t gone wrong yet on the Enterprise, it would. 

Jim was sat in his cabin, reading through the notes made by the Delta shift, so that he knew what to expect on the Alpha shift, when there was a knock on the door. “Enter,” he had called out to the currently empty room.

The door had swished open and Spock stood in the doorway. Although Vulcans tended to be stoic and not show their emotions, being with Spock for a while had enabled Jim to learn to see the tiny signs of distress. Spock’s back was straighter than usual and his hands rested at his sides, rather than his relaxed posture of having them clasped loosely behind his back. Also, his dark eyes seemed even more shadowed, as they did when something was bothering him. 

Jim placed the PADD down on his desk and rose from his earlier relaxed position on his chair to meet his First Officer as he stepped into the room, as quietly as a cat. A drop of fear sunk into Jim’s stomach, causing it to take a sudden trip to his boots as his heart caught in his throat. “What’s wrong?”

“Sir, Doctor McCoy appears to be suffering with a sickness and…”

Spock wasn’t able to continue as Jim interrupted him, “where is he?”

“In the sickbay, Captain,” Spock answered almost instantly.

Jim was already leaving the room before Spock had even finished speaking. He felt protective of all his crew, but there was something about the irritable doctor that caused his need to protect to go through the roof. 

He didn’t run to get to the sickbay, as it would make his crew worry, but he walked as fast as he possibly could down the corridors.

At the end of the corridor, Jim stepped into the turbo-lift and turned to see that Spock had managed to keep up with his long, quick paces as he stepped in to join Jim. “Sickbay,” Jim ordered, his voice sharp, making him wince slightly at his own tone. 

The three or four seconds (Spock would probably be able to say how much time had passed exactly) that it took for the turbo-lift to travel between decks had never seemed to take so long in Jim’s mind. It seemed to take almost a minute, but that could just be the adrenaline causing his mind to think of things faster. 

The doors had hardly opened before he was jumping out of the turbo-lift, never so happy to see Sickbay before in his life ‘and probably never will be again,’ he thought to himself with a hint of a smile before his thoughts tracked back to his best friend.

“Bones?” he called out when he entered the Sickbay to see Bones laying on a bio-bed with Uhura stood over him, almost as if she were at a wake. Bones looked so pale and he seemed fragile. It was so unlike the persona that Bones gave out that it terrified Jim. He realised that he had slowed down as he moved towards the bed, not wanting to scare Uhura or Bones (even though he seemed to be out for the count).

It was never supposed to be Bones on the bio-beds, he should be moving between the beds, lecturing the patients on the issues with being so stupid. He should be telling Jim to get out of his way, to let him work. 

Behind him, Jim heard Spock say something, but he was too distracted to take note of what the words were. 

It took Jim far too long to realise that he was stood in the middle of the Sickbay, staring at his friend. He also hadn’t realised that Nurse Chapel was talking to him until she stepped forward and shook his shoulder gently. Jim felt as if he jumped a mile as he turned to look at the head nurse. She wore a sympathetic smile, her eyes assessing him, to make sure that he didn’t need to be treated as well.

“What’s wrong with him?”

“According to the tricorder, it seems to be a strand of flu. We’re just working out what strain it is and then we’ll start to treat it.”

“Why is he unconscious if it’s just flu?”

“Doctor McCoy failed to call us when he was feeling ill and so, when he got to the mess, he collapsed due to his fever being too high. We’ve set the cooling function on the bio-bed to try and bring it down a little bit.”

Jim nodded, while his mind filtered through what Chapel had said. “He collapsed? In the mess? How did he get here?” he asked, almost hysterically as he stepped towards Bones.

Chapel smiled brightly, but there was a hint of something else in her eyes, humour perhaps? “Yes, he collapsed in the mess, or at least that’s what we’ve been told. Also, how he got here, Mr Spock carried him in,” she said with a small laugh.

Jim cringed openly, but also felt a little bit of mockery coming. “Please tell me you got a picture.” Bones would never believe him without evidence.

“I’m sure that the security footage will show it,” she said, humour filling her voice too, before taking a serious tone. “He’ll be fine.”

“Thank you,” Jim said sincerely to her before sitting down in the chair that had been put at Bones’ bedside. He looked around and saw that Spock and Uhura had left, probably to get to their shift.

“Bones, you always know how to scare me,” Jim scolded under his breath as he leaned forward and grabbed Bones’ limp hand between both of his own.


	4. Confusion - Leonard's POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There should be one more chapter after this, I hope everyone enjoys.

Leonard remembered standing in the mess, but this sounded nothing like the mess. If he had to hazard a guess, he would say that he was in his Sickbay, but that wasn’t right. He could hear the sounds of the beeping machines that he was used to and someone was talking, but he couldn’t be sure who, or what they were saying. 

He could feel himself laying down…wait, that wasn’t right, he was standing before. Also, the surface beneath him was blissfully cool, soothing the burning heat in his blood. He could smell something familiar, coffee and antiseptic. The last sense to return to him was his sight, as it felt like such a struggle to open his eyelids to the light that he could see behind them. 

His fingers twitched in irritation and he felt someone else’s hand grip his. Something brushed against his cheek and it took a moment to realise that someone was breathing next to his face, their head bent down near to him. “Come on, Sleeping Bonesy, time to wake up,” a soft voice ordered playfully.

If he had the energy, Leonard would have groaned in that instant, because he knew that voice, that irritatingly happy tone. It could only be one person … ‘well unless there are two Jim Kirks,’ he thought, before shying away from it immediately. The universe could hardly cope with one Jim Kirk; two would cause another Big Bang. 

There was a sensation on his face as Jim began to chant “Bones, Bones, Bones, Bones, Bones…”

This time, he couldn’t suppress the groan as he swatted away whatever was on his face and turned away from Jim. He felt himself being rolled over from the other side and thankfully Jim had shut up. 

“Leonard, can you open your eyes?” another voice asked. This one was a calm and collected baritone, who he recognised as Geoffrey M’Benga, one of the other doctors that worked aboard the Enterprise (which sometimes felt as if it was filled with infants, who were far too accident prone). 

Leonard stifled a sigh and tried (with surprising difficulty) to open his eyes. When he managed, the bright light above him seemed to blind him, forcing him to close his eyes once more. He heard someone tapping and the lights above him dimmed, making him assuming that M’Benga had turned it down using a PADD. 

He gingerly opened his eyes once more and was subjected to about five minutes of poking and prodding love from M’Benga. Being a doctor, he knew that it was necessary, but now being a patient, he understood why Jim always got irritated by it, not that he would tell Jim that.

About ten minutes worth of questions, prodding and poking later, as well as the results from a blood test earlier, told him that he has Tangan flu, from their most recent away mission. When M’Benga had told him, another groan almost left his lips, especially when Jim asked if there was a hypospray to cure this. 

“There is,” M’Benga had answered tentatively, with a sideways glance towards Leonard, who sneezed in response.

“So, what’s the issue?” Jim asked, questioning why M’Benga hadn’t just grabbed the hypo and stabbed the usually hypo-happy doctor. 

“I’m allergic to the main antibiotic used in the cure,” Leonard explained, gently rubbing the end of his nose to try to stop the irritating tickle of another sneeze.  
Leonard watched as Jim’s face fell, “so what now?”

“I get to live with it for the next few days,” he grumbled as M’Benga gave him a sympathetic smile. He grabbed his PADD and began to type something in.

“You’re on sick leave for the next three days, after that, we’ll assess your condition and if necessary, we’ll increase the sick leave,” he explained, watching Leonard’s face.

Jim chuckled under his breath as he watched Leonard grimace at the thought of be on sick leave.

“I’m a damn doctor…”

“And now, you’re a patient,” Jim finished for him with a bright smile. Leonard wanted to walk away from Jim, but he knew that he would just be pushed back to the bed by both Jim and M’Benga. Instead, he resorted to scowling at Jim, who just threw his head back and laughed.

Leonard was distracted by more tapping from M’Benga on his PADD, “you should be able to be discharged to your quarters later on tonight,” he notified Leonard with a smile, before turning on his heel towards the nurses station, leaving Leonard with a still chuckling infantile captain.


	5. Comfort - Leonard's POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry it's taken so long. It's all done now though, so enjoy. 
> 
> Thank you all for your wonderful comments.

After a well-needed painkiller and antipyretic, Leonard had relaxed and soon, Jim had calmed down, realising that Leonard wasn’t in immediate danger. It only took a few minutes of persuasion for Jim to go to the shift that he had missed part of.

Leonard was subjected to a bit more poking and prodding, but soon, M’Benga determined that there wasn’t much more that the Sickbay could do for Leonard, apart from interrupt his rest and so, he was soon transferred to his quarters. He had been given a very stern talking to from Chapel, stating that if he felt any worse that he was to contact them, or else. He assumed that the or else, was an unspoken promise of more bed rest than he needed and also, more hyposprays than he would care to count.

Leonard had promised to Chapel and apparently, that was enough for her to drop the case. That was how he had finally ended up in his quarters, tucked safely into his own bed. It didn’t take long before he was dragged into a deep and dreamless sleep.

It felt as if he had only been asleep for a minute or two before he was opening his eyes again, this time to a cold feeling across his forehead. He reached up a tentative, shaky hand to touch the foreign material. Pulling it down, he noted that it was a damp cloth that was being used as a cold compress.

He let it fall from his fingers and let out a groan as he sat up. Apparently, the painkiller and antipyretic were beginning to wear off, if his headache and nausea were anything to go by. There was an annoying buzzing in his ears as well, but after sitting still for a moment, it eventually began to fade, soon to be replaced by the soft sounds of voices from his living area.

His curiosity piqued and he finally gained the motivation to investigate the noises.

His first steps out of bed, reminded him of a foal’s first steps as he teetered and tottered, finding his balance. His hands shot out in front of him as he swayed, using the wall to balance himself as the room span.

Once the room stayed still again he moved towards the door, which opened automatically for him. The voices in the lounge area stopped and he looked to see Nyota sat on the arm chair, Spock on the settee and Jim on the small coffee table. They were all staring at him, as if expecting him to either break or collapse. Actually, after a moment of thinking, the latter point might happen if he didn’t sit down soon. It must have shown on his face because Jim suddenly jumped up, almost kicking the coffee table over.

He bounded over and gently led Leonard further into the room. Spock had vacated the settee and Jim placed him down there and sat down beside him.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, feeling a blush spread across his cheeks as he realised that he was being so dependent. He felt helpless and irritating.

Jim didn’t answer, but began to card his hand through Leonard’s hair, mumbling something soothing, while holding Leonard close to him.

“How are you feeling, Leonard?” Nyota asked her voice soft and filled with worry.

‘ _I’m fine_ ,’ were the first words to pop into his head, but he soon realised that actually, he definitely wasn’t fine. “Like I’ve been run over by a shuttle, but I’ll be okay.”

Jim chuckled and pulled Leonard down so that he could lie across the settee, his head pillowed on Jim’s legs, while his own curled up. It was surprisingly comfortable, he thought as Jim began carding his hair again.

“How long have you been here?” Leonard had to hold back a yawn as Jim’s comforts were making him feel relaxed, his headache beginning to dim a little.

“Not long,” Nyota answered. Spock stood beside her, with his hands clasped behind his back, looking as if he wanted to quote the time to the second, but was having an internal debate as to whether he should irritate the sick doctor. Leonard felt a small smile touch his lips.

The room fell silent for a moment before Spock moved towards the replicator and ordered something, before bringing it over to where Jim and Leonard were. When Leonard opened his eyes (that he hadn’t realised that he had shut), he saw that Spock was holding a glass of water.

He was sat up and helped to drink, as he was apparently too weak to do so himself, which was even more embarrassing. “Sorry,” he said again as he was laid down once more.

“You have nothing to be sorry about Bones,” Jim scolded gently, his blue eyes looking at Leonard cautiously.

“I’ve been a pain for all of you though.” “Why do you think that, Leonard?” Nyota asked as she came over to stand next to Spock.

He looked to Jim, “I made you worry and made you late for your shift,” he then looked at Nyota, “I made you worry as well,” and he finally looked at Spock, “and I collapsed on you like some kind of damsel in distress.”

“Please don’t worry Bones.” Leonard looked at Jim, catching the glint of mischief enter his eyes. “Although, I expect that the crew seeing Mr Spock carrying you unconscious through the ship will affect your ‘scary doctor act’.”

Leonard’s stomach dropped (which is never fun when it’s already feeling ready to flip) and he buried his head before looking up at Spock and Nyota. “Please tell me he’s joking.” 

Nyota’s sheepish look told him all he needed to know. “It was logical,” Spock replied simply, making Leonard not know whether to hide or try to punch the damn Vulcan. Instead, he groaned and grimaced. Jim chuckled and Leonard scowled at him (the best he could being sick, he’d get him back later) “I’m glad that it’s amusing for you at least,” he grumbled. 

“Always, Bones,” Jim replied with a grin before his face turned serious for a moment. “We’ll always be here for you, just like you are for us.” 

With a smile on his face and Jim’s words in his head, Leonard turned to get comfortable, knowing that his friends would always be there for him.


End file.
